Terrific archive of forty-eight documents, including approximately nineteen signed by Hollywood notables, each one page, 8.5 x 11, 1954–1955. Each of the documents is a one-page agreement related to an oil-leasing scheme devised as a tax shelter by popular singer Pat Boone (here identified by his legal name, Charles E. Boone). Boone was evidently convincing as a pitchman, as he managed to enlist dozens of Hollywood’s biggest names as investors at $12,500 or $25,000 each, at a time when million-dollar movie salaries were regarded as sheer folly. Among the more prominent signers: Stewart Granger, Humphrey Bogart, Hugh Herbert, Barbara Stanwyck, Walter Pidgeon, Cornel Wilde, director William Wyler, David Niven, Debbie Reynolds, director George Sidney, director George Stevens, Robert Wagner, Jack Palance, Eve Arden (using her legal name, “Eunice Q. West”), Van Johnson, screenwriter/director Irving Brecher, screenwriter/director Richard Brooks, Dick Powell (as “Richard E. Powell”), and Robert Taylor. The documents are contained together in the original binder with several unsigned carbon copies of letters and related documents. In fine condition, with binding holes to top edges, mild toning and a touch of mild scattered soiling, and folds (not touching signatures). R&R COA. Featured collection item.
